The large coverage and long duration of drought conditions across the U.S. set several records in 2022. The year was also marked by numerous severe weather events, devastating hurricanes and deadly flooding across parts of the country.

More than 1.3% of the adult population in the U.S. was displaced by natural disasters in the past year, with hurricanes responsible for more than half of the forced relocations, according to first-of-its-kind survey results from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Insured damages from Hurricane Fiona are now estimated at over $800 million, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ), as it remains the most costly extreme weather event ever recorded in Atlantic Canada.

Global insurers and reinsurers look set to incur costs stretching into the multi-billion-dollar range from the ongoing winter storm and severe cold weather impacting the United States and Canada.

Supply chain problems aren’t going away any time soon for insurance adjusters. Home improvement retailers and warehouses have been plagued by empty shelves since the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. And goods scarcities for everything from lumber to La-Z-Boys have driven cost increases that make home insurance claims settlements more expensive.

‘It’s going to take a while, in terms of the supply chain getting back to what the demand is,’ said Janak Lally, assistant vice president at ClaimsPro – BC Lower Mainland & Interior. ‘You’re waiting on products for a long time.’

Lately, that’s been particularly true for home appliances – which makes adjusters’ jobs harder if they’re trying to control costs while getting clients’ lives back to normal following NatCats or other events where homeowners experience contents losses.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed legislation providing hurricane relief assistance and moving to shore up the state’s property insurance market in the wake of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole this year.

The insurance industry may turn its back on the renewable energy sector if it endures another year of unprecedented natural catastrophe losses like 2022.

On July 26, Brandon Jones’s St. Louis home was hit by major flooding for the second time since 2008, when he moved in. Cars were barely visible under several feet of turgid storm water, as record rainfall fell on the city.

Arbol, an insurtech platform underwriting climate and weather insurance, has delivered a $10-million parametric insurance payout to property and casualty (P&C) company Centauri Insurance, only weeks after the hurricane struck in late September.

Climate risk figured prominently throughout Triple-I’s Joint Industry Forum last week -- from the impact of severe weather events on insurers’ loss ratios to its significance in terms of changing risk profiles and to Florida homeowners’ insurance crisis.

According to reinsurance firm Swiss Re, global insured natural catastrophe losses have reached $115 billion in 2022, year-to-date, with hurricane Ian the main contributor at an estimated $50 billion to $65 billion.

More than a year after Hurricane Ida swept across Louisiana, the Category 4 storm is triggering a property-insurance crisis in the state that has bankrupted 11 insurance companies and will force some homeowners to pay annual premiums of nearly $18,000.

Ninety percent of the counties in the United States suffered a weather disaster between 2011 and 2021, according to a report published this past week. Some endured as many as 12 federally-declared disasters over those 11 years.

Catastrophe risk modelling firm RMS has estimated that the private insurance and reinsurance market loss from recent hurricane Nicole will fall below $2 billion, with its best estimate being for a $1.6 billion industry loss.

Hurricane Ian has bulked up losses for three Floridian homeowners’ insurers, with one seeing its net loss for the quarter increase tenfold.